Splice

"She's not human...not entirely."

2010 1h 44m EN

😐

5.9

MID

★5.9TMDB · 2,537

HorrorScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named "Dren", the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators - only to have that bond turn deadly.

“She's not human...not entirely.”

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Cast

Adrien Brody
Clive
Sarah Polley
Elsa
Delphine Chanéac
Dren
David Hewlett
Barlow
Abigail Chu
Young Dren
Stephanie Baird
Elsa / PD
Brandon McGibbon
Gavin
Amanda Brugel
Melinda Finch

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Vincenzo Natali
Writers: Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, Doug Taylor
Languages: English
Countries: Canada, France, Germany, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 16 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 4 countries: Canada, France, Germany, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Vincenzo Natali, shot by Tetsuo Nagata. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Cyrille Aufort. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michele Conroy shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley and Delphine Chanéac carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "She's not human...not entirely.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt1017460 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Vincenzo Natali directs. Tetsuo Nagata behind the camera. Cyrille Aufort scores. Michele Conroy cuts. Produced in Canada, France, Germany, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 16 years ago.
2International production across 4 countries: Canada, France, Germany, United States of America.
3Directed by Vincenzo Natali, shot by Tetsuo Nagata. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Cyrille Aufort. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Michele Conroy shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley and Delphine Chanéac carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "She's not human...not entirely.".
8IMDB entry: tt1017460 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 19 themes, including "rape", "experiment", "genetics", "dna".
10Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Tetsuo Nagata
Original score: Cyrille Aufort
Editing: Michele Conroy
Production design: Todd Cherniawsky
Costume design: Alex Kavanagh
Makeup / hair: Julia Valente
VFX supervisor: Bob Munroe
Sound: David Rose
Stunt coordinator: Plato Fountidakis
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $26,000,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Splice (2010)

Awards

Sitges Film Festival best special effects award

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Vincenzo Natali

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Andres Gomez2014-11-26
★ 5/10
The FX is OK and the uneasiness and thrill is always there but the script is stereotypical, weak and full of holes.
John Chard2018-12-02
★ 6/10
Brundledren! Splice is a tricky picture to evaluate, for its ideas are superb. One could argue that it brings a new petri dish full of meddling scientists facing the consequences of their actions, while conversely it justifiably feels like a Cronenberg knock-off. Psychological discord is in abundance, with its slants on skew-whiff parenting giving the pic a dark fascination, and as unpleasant as the male fantasy angle is, it does hold a morbid interest factor. Yet come the final third the makers let things run away from them, the bonkers dangers of tampering with science giving way to daft schlock, even managing to be distasteful in the process - while the finale is a weak attempt at a "TBC" cliff hanger. Lead cast members are turning in good perfs. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as the meddling science couple hold court well, and Delphine Chaneac as the Chimera splicer of the piece really nails all the various emotional strands required for a tricky role. Director Vincenzo Natali has shown with Cube and Cypher he has something to offer the horror/sci-fi splinters of film, but this is a mixed bag. A film of great ideas let down by overheating the plot for shock values, while the levity inserted into the play is misguided and damaging for dramatic worth. 6/10
CinemaSerf2022-10-26
★ 5/10
"Clive" (Adrien Brody) and "Elsa" (Sarah Polley) are a couple of genetic engineers charged by David Hewlett's "Barlow" with discovering an important gene that could lead to huge advances in medical science. Using a mix of human and animal DNA that have varying degrees of success before the evolution of a creature "Dren" (Delphine Chanéac) that develops more human attributes - as well as a tail with a stinger and the ability to grow wings. As we progress through this frankly rather disturbing story, we discover that "Elsa" quite literally has skin in the game as they must both seek to protect their creation from not just their employers but from her increasingly violent and lustful tendencies. I was quite interested in the underlying premise but the execution here is really poor. I never did really get why Brody was ever successful in the first place and here there is no chemistry between him and Polley; the storyline which could have been challenging and thought-provoking instead borders on the absurdly far-fetched and the ending couldn't really come quick enough as we really do struggle to reach any sort of a satisfactory conclusion - either from a personal or a scientific perspective. It does highlight the dangers of unfettered scientific experimentation but sadly in no more an entertaining fashion that we have seen many times before - more enjoyably - from Hammer Studios!